Lawmakers pledge to help Ocracoke residents
State lawmakers said they will help residents of storm-ravaged Ocracoke Island, even as federal emergency officials declined to provide additional help for families who lost everything in Hurricane Dorian last month.
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The House voted Wednesday to forgive up to 20 additional missed school days for Ocracoke students. Senate Bill 312 would also guarantee that all Ocracoke school personnel would be paid for the missed days. The measure now goes back to the Senate.
Sponsor Rep. Bobby Hanig, R-Dare, whose district includes Ocracoke, said the measure, a rewrite of an unrelated Senate bill, would relieve some of the financial pressure on teachers and staff at the school and make it easier for students to complete their school year at a normal time.
Hanig expressed frustration at the Federal Emergency Management Agency's decision Tuesday to deny the state’s application for individual disaster relief for Ocracoke residents. Federal officials said the isolated island’s damage was too localized to meet the agency’s minimum damage threshold.
“The threshold is the issue. It doesn’t matter if you have 1,000 or 10 homes. Those 10 folks need assistance,” Hanig said. “The equations are antiquated, I believe, and it’s time to revisit it.
“The whole east coast [of North Carolina] is a victim of geography,” he continued. “It happened last year in Pamlico. Pamlico didn’t get included in the disaster declaration for [Hurricane] Florence. They had monumental damage there, but they didn’t reach the threshold.”
House leadership said they will put together Dorian-related aid legislation in the coming weeks.
“There’s no way we’ll leave them stranded. There’s no way,” Hanig said. “We’ll help.”
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